By Andrea Widburg
It emerged last week that Roald Dahl’s publisher, Puffin, gave Dahl’s children’s books to a company that edits them to confirm to woke norms. Facing outrage, Puffin promised to publish a paper version of the original works but will generally opt for the bowdlerization. While it was awful to learn what happened to Dahl, it’s a good thing. A little research has revealed the company behind the changes and the person who was probably (although not certainly) responsible. If you pay attention to what she has to say, you will get a masterclass in the leftist values coming from Disney and other children’s content creators.
Caroline Downey, at National Review, dug around and discovered that the hundreds of changes that neutered Dahl’s work came from a British publishers’ consulting group called Inclusive Minds. The “About page” is as awful as you’d imagine it would be in a DEI-obsessed way.
The organization claims that it works with “book creators” to connect them to authentic “inclusion Ambassadors” who will “share nuances related to their lived experience.” No more author’s imagination. Everything must go by the lived experience of the person who works at Inclusive minds. And yes, “[o]ccasionally publishers approach us to consult Inclusion Ambassadors when looking to reprint older titles.” Here’s how that worked when it came to Roald Dahl’s acerbic writing:
Whilst this is not the main focus for the Ambassadors (and we believe better authenticity is achieved through input at development stages), we do think those with lived experience can provide valuable input when it comes to reviewing language that can be damaging and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. In all our work with marginalised young people, the very real negative impact and damage caused to self-worth and mental health from biased, stereotypical and inauthentic representation is a recurring theme.
According to Downing, the presiding genius behind the bastardization of Dahl’s works is almost certainly a woman named Jo Ross-Barrett (“they/them”). Ross-Barrett’s bio is impressive, and I mean that in the worst way possible:
Jo Ross-Barrett (they/them) is a writer and editor with a passion for championing inclusive content and policies. They have a Distinction-grade MSc in Publishing and have had work published in Bi-ble (Volume 1), an anthology about bisexuality and related identities, and AZE Journal, an online magazine for aromantic-spectrum, asexual-spectrum and agender people. Jo is an autistic, non-binary, asexual, polyamorous relationship anarchist. They work with Inclusive Minds to help authors and publishers make their books more authentically representative of marginalised groups, and have provided workshops and talks at A Place at the Table 2020 and the UK Asexuality Conference 2019. They were a shadow judge for the CILIP Kate Greenaway and Carnegie Awards, and received commendations for the quality of their feedback. They are also the producer of What The Trans!?, a news and interviews podcast made by and for transgender and non-binary people.
In other words, a troubled person who is narcissistically obsessed with her sexual identity was put in charge of editing one of the world’s most brilliant children’s authors to bring his writing into line with her worldview. This is Ross-Barrett in action:
Did you see what I see? Ross-Barrett, who is clearly bright, is also a total Marxist who embraces every leftist cultural trope in existence: transgenderism, intersectionality, anti-capitalism, racial hierarchies, deviant or mentally ill sexuality, etc. She believes books that portray the dominant culture (white, heterosexual, striving for accomplishment, able-bodied, Christian) are unrealistic and prejudiced. In other words, Ross-Barrett wishes to turn our incredibly successful Western model (traditional nuclear families, racial color blindness, Judeo-Christian values, capitalism) on its head—and she understands that literature (especially for children) is the way to go.
I urge you to stick with Ross-Barrett’s presentation because it perfectly sums up what’s coming out of Disney (as well as other mainstream children’s media) regarding, not just LGBTQ+++ sexuality, but also race, “able-ism,” Western history, etc. Listening to Ross-Barrett is, as the creators of the video claim, a masterclass in understanding the leftists’ relentless battle to control our children’s values.